Final day of my fifteenth year. To be honest, I expected to be more excited about it. Then again, I'd expected a lot of things that didn't quite turn out as they should have. The Chuunin exams, for one.

Definately didn't expect that invasion, either.

But Masaru's awake and out of intensive care, and due home when they're certain it's okay, and he's talking and grumbling and I just want to smack him one sometimes when I visit. I mean, its a hospital, they can patch Nii-san up afterwards, can't they?

It's taken so long to fix him, but it's not surprising really. The damages and injuries incurred and the deaths took their toll on staff there, and really, if the med-nin can save their chakra for emergencies they should. As they did. But Nii-san'll be home in a few weeks, and I'll be so glad. I've missed the big headed moron.

It's weird to be home alone so much, especially with curfew preventing me from going out (even if there was anywhere to go right now) or even training or hanging at the forge - even if I was allowed to do the latter anymore. It's being used primarily for general smith purposes in my father's absence to help the village.

Stupid curfew kept me from going to Ino's thing at the Nara place this past weekend, too, even if I hadn't been off on missions that needed doing that got me home too late. I was kinda looking forward to it, I haven't seen the rookie girls in a while. There'll just have to be other weekends, I guess, when I'm not training with my team. Although.. rumour has it that a new Hokage's been chosen, which may mean we'll have some 'holiday' time to celebrate.

Rumour also has it that the new Hokage is Tsunade-sama.

*Tsunade-sama*.

Tsunade-sama, back in Konoha! Man, I can't believe it, that's just so awesome. She's one of the best kunoichi in shinobi history and SHE is going to be the next Hokage. Man.. I hope it's true. Hope I get to meet her at some point, although I've no idea what I'd say to her if I did.

I need to catch up with Neji and Lee later, see what they're up to, maybe see if they're interested in some training. Anything to get me out of the house. I'll drive myself nuts trying to figure out where I'm going wrong with this new kata when I can't get the transitions between the fifth and sixth movements right.

Screw parties and birthdays, anyway. I need to prepare for the next exams.

*A large scrap of torn paper marked with Konoha Hospital's watermark, stained by water and coffee rings, is covered in cramped messy scrawlings written by a tired hand.*

This has to be the first time I've had the chance to stop for longer than five minutes that didn't involve visiting patients or wait on messages to deliver from site to site. They're really determined to keep us busy, and everything's so damaged.. it reminds me of the tales they told us at the Academy of how things were after Kyuubi's attack, except everyone says that was way worse than this.

It's really hard to imagine 'worse'. The whole stadium is completely crushed! Entire areas have been demolished! We'll be picking shuriken and kunai out of teh woodwork for weeks..

It's also past curfew again, so I guess I'm stuck at the hospital till morning, but since Isamu's allowed visitors now, I can bunk down in his room so long as I'm not getting in the way. I've gotten used to sleeping in odd positions in these damned chairs, but the crick my neck gets is.. I'd go bother Ino again, but the girl needs to rest after her fight. She took a pretty nasty hit to the chest, and the Gentle First style isn't.

I'm being shifted to the 'soup run' tomorrow; running deliveries of items and shifting supplies to and from the bunker complex rather than doing the message runs they've kept me on. Change is good and means I won't fall over dead bodies, I hope and maybe I'll find my teammates. I haven't seen Lee or Neji (or Gai-sensei, for that matter) since before the Finals..

And my family. Where to begin.

Masaru's been in intensive care since after the fighting stopped days ago, and only father's been allowed to see him. Not that I've seen father myself; the jounin have all been kept so busy since the attack, I'm lucky I've even had a chance to see Tsuyoshi and he's only a chuunin. Isamu's due to be released in two days, with orders to rest until next week - then he can return to duty; he intends on attending the Memorial Service they've announced will be held this weekend, though.

His face got slashed during a skirmish with Sound-nin, and if he had't moved when he did he would have been decapi killed. As it is, even with healing, he'll have a scar across his face. I can't believe he almo

Masaru got crushed under a falling building. That idiot.. Only he could haul himself out a bloody mess. I swear, when I'm allowed to see him again, I'll kill him for making me worry so d---

OOC: Since I've found myself out of synch with RP and my character lately, and needing to get back into the swing of writing as is, I figured I'd follow the 15minuteficlets scheme of writing and see what I could produce in that time span with a relevant word theme. Below was the product of my first attempt, theme picked at random. o_o I'll be doing more!

I am NOT getting dragged to a goddamned flowershop so he can buy his new 'sweetheart' a large bouquet of flowers this early in the morning!! He KNOWS I was out late training! He KNOWS I need my sleep in order to pick up where I left off with Neji yesterday! I need my wits about me when working with him, and coffee isn't going to cut it!

I knew making sure I aced the extra, really DULL kunoichi classes at the academy was a mistake.. And what the heck do I know about flowers anyway? I'm a weapons specialist, not a florist.

If he uses the "Well, you're a GIRL, so OF COURSE you'll know.." excuse again, I'll *kill* him..

Nii-sama and Nii-san have been pretty quiet for the past few days. Gekkou-san's death was a shock to everyone, it seems, for all that I didn't really know him but knew of him thanks to my brothers. Seen him from time to time at the Forge, too. I had hoped to take part in his kenjutsu classes in the new year, but.. Father said that there was a jounin meeting soon, which he received notice about at the same time Gekkou-san's death.

I can't help but wonder if it's related, but I'm not about to ask.

I haven't felt this exhausted from intensive training in a long time, though. Were it not for the fact Father insisted that I lend a hand with cleaning up and storing away some of the newly forged and older, repaired weapons, I'd be out again all day helping Neji again. As it is, I hope he takes this afternoon off to recooperate, although I won't trust to hope - he's as bad as Lee when it comes to overdoing it in training, and chakra exhaustion can be dangerous.. But I'm sure he'll be alright. I mean, i know he's "upset" (to put it mildly) about how the exams went down, but.. Training seems to help him focus off his anger. At least, it seems to be. Or maybe he's just channeling it more productively..

Oh, he'll be okay. He always is. He *is* Neji, after all.

Speaking of Lee, I should check up on him. I've not seen much of him since the exams, but I suspect he's probably training lie crazy to get strong for next time. Exactly how many crazy challenges he's set himself this time I don't dare wonder, but with Gai-sensei away on a mission, I guess it'll be up to me to shake some common sense into him.

And we *will* ace the exams next time. They won't say where exactly the next exam will be held until the Finals are over, but in the meantime, we'll train and we'll get stronger.

I'll have to remember to talk Yuki-san when he comes to collect his order about the exam. His team wasn't put forward for it this year (something about a pre-exam exam..?), and wanted to know how we faired.

Also got my cards back from Ino-san. Pity I was too exhausted from training to attend that 'slumber party' but kinda glad I missed out on the invasion. Boys. Tch... I met Hinata a few days back, too. Rather than just seeing her from a distance. We'd both finished training in that ice storm, and she stopped at the ramen shop for a quick lunch with me. She seems...Shy. A nice girl, if a little submissive at times. I can see why Neji dislikes her, he can't stand 'weakness', but.. Well, doesn't matter what I think in regards to his aversion to all things Main Family. I won't be mentioning our meeting to him. Hinata seems much nicer than your typical Hyuuga, anyway.

...Oh man, Masaru's flirting with that Shiranui girl *again*. I think her name's 'Sonhae', or something. I hope he's not going to get too serious, or he'll be asking for his heart to be broken.